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sTaTe

Lawmakers to hold Aug. 31 session to redraw legislative maps

by Jerry noWicKi

Capitol News Illinois

Lawmakers will head back to the Capitol on Tuesday, Aug. 31, to consider changes to the legislative maps that Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law earlier this year.

Those maps – which set the new boundaries for the 118 state House and 59 state Senate districts for the next decade – were passed based on survey data in May, as the full U.S. Census block-level numbers were not made available until Aug. 12. The release of that data, however, appears to show population deviations far exceeding the 10 percent threshold allowed under Supreme Court precedent, so some changes are necessary to put the maps in compliance.

The remap effort, which occurs every 10 years after the census, was a key talking point Thursday for Republicans during their day at the Illinois State Fair, which followed Governor’s Day, a celebration of Democrats, the day prior.

In the run-up to the legislative maps passing, GOP leaders warned that using survey data as opposed to the full census results would lead to the exact problem the maps now face.

But if Democrats would have waited on the census data, they would have missed a key deadline in the Illinois Constitution that would have put mapmaking in the hands of a bipartisan commission and possibly given Republicans a 50-50 shot at mapmaking control.

Republicans have filed a lawsuit asking a federal panel to send the matter to a commission as described in the constitution.

Late last week the GOP filed a motion for summary judgement in light of the census data, an effort to send the matter to a commission and void the current version of the legislative maps.

But Democrats filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss the Republicans’ amended complaint,

and another Friday seeking to halt the process until Sept. 1, after the one-day session.

In their court filing to dismiss, lawyers for the Democrats called the GOP effort to send the maps to a commission one “to exploit exigencies resulting from a global pandemic, which were out of the legislature’s control, for political gain.”

The matter is otherwise set for trial at the end of September.

Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, characterized Democrats as trying to “pull a fast one” and acting “pure and simple for power” during a GOP breakfast in Springfield prior to Republican Day at the State Fair on Thursday.

“We are going to be pressing the federal court to do what the Illinois Constitution says, and that is to send it to the bipartisan commission, where it should have gone in the first place, and have that be the decision maker to actually draw the maps going forward,” he said.

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, and Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, on Friday issued a joint statement confirming the Aug. 31 one-day session.

“Our goal has always been to implement a map that is fair and represents the diversity of the population of Illinois,” Harmon said in the statement. “With census data now available, we will take any necessary legislative action with that same goal in mind.”

congressional maps The Democrats appeared to indicate the session would focus on only state, not congressional mapmaking.

Per the census, Illinois will drop from 18 to 17 congressional districts, and Democrats are expected to draw the maps in a way that would make it difficult for Republicans to maintain the five seats

JERRY NOWICKI/CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS

senate republican leader dan mcconchie, r-hawthorn Woods, is pictured at republican day at the illinois state Fair Thursday. he and house minority leader Jim durkin asked a judge to void democratdrawn legislative maps in their latest legal filing Thursday, while democrats have asked that the case be dismissed or adjourned until after they approve changes to the maps at the end of the month. they have now.

How that map is drawn is expected to play a major role in how the statewide Republican field will shape up ahead of 2022’s June 28 primary, which was postponed from March due to the census delays.

That’s largely because U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, a Taylorville Republican, is holding out his decision on what to do next until he sees the congressional maps drawn by Democrats.

“My job is to serve the constituents of the 13th District right now,” Davis said. “My ability to continue to do that job is going to depend upon the supermajority Democrats who run the House and the

Senate here in the Statehouse, and also Gov. Pritzker who has broken his promise already to the voters of Illinois, that he would not sign legislatively drawn maps.”

While Davis waits to see if continuing his congressional career can remain viable amid a new map, he’s considering a run for governor.

Davis got a speaking spot at Republican Day at the Illinois State Fair along with two of the state’s other sitting GOP members of congress, while the current gubernatorial candidates did not.

The gubernatorial field as it stands includes Darren Bailey, a state senator from Xenia who was a Pritzker antagonist throughout

the pandemic, challenging the governor’s executive orders; Gary Rabine, a suburban paving business owner; and Paul Schimpf, a former state senator and 2014 GOP candidate for attorney general.

Davis’ presence in the race could affect other potential statewide candidates as well, including state Rep. Tom Demmer, who said Thursday “nothing’s off the table right now” as he considers a statewide run, although he specifically mentioned the secretary of state’s office.

State Rep. Dan Brady, of Bloomington, is also seriously considering a secretary of state run.

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Will coUnTy

Board approves funding for Vote by Mail

The Will County Board has unanimously approved $1.9 million in funding to purchase equipment to automate her office’s growing Vote By Mail program.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the passage of new voting legislation has driven up participation in Vote By Mail to unprecedented levels in Will County and across Illinois. In the 2020 Presidential Election, the Will County Clerk’s Office fulfilled 123,779 requests for Vote By Mail Ballots, a 310-percent spike over the previous record of 30,192 requests in the 2016 Presidential Election.

The automation program will save a minimum of $500,000 per election over assembling packets and processing ballot returns manually. If the County Clerk’s Office continues to fulfill 125,000 Vote By Mail requests per election, the automation program will have paid for itself by the end of 2024.

“The approval of this automation funding shows the commitment of Will County’s leadership team and the entire Will County Board to the accurate, efficient, and secure tabulation of Vote By Mail Ballots,” County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry said. “County Board Speaker Mimi Cowan, Minority Leader Mike Fricilone, Majority Lead-

er Meta Mueller, and County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant all recognize the importance of upgrading our program as participation in Vote

By Mail continues to rise. It is gratifying to partner with this team to ensure precision and accuracy in processing ballots for our voters and to guarantee a solid return on our investment for every Will County taxpayer.”

Cowan noted that cooperation between Will County’s elected officials on important projects serves the public’s interests.

“The County Board supports the County Clerk’s goal of efficient and effective management of elections,” Cowan said. “We appreciate the collaboration between our elected officials in our work to provide services to the public, and we encourage voters to take advantage of the Vote By Mail option in future elections. This is a winwin move.”

“When the Board makes funding decisions, we always look at the return on our investments,” Fricilone said.

“The savings we will see in reduced costs of the Clerk’s operations will exceed the amount of dollars the Board is allocating to make this automation happen. This just makes sense to do, and we are happy to work together to

get this going.”

Bertino-Tarrant noted that Vote By Mail is driving up participation in our elections.

“Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry successfully managed an enormous task in last year’s election,” Bertino-Tarrant said. “Clearly the Vote by Mail option increased voter participation when historically, low voter turnout has often been a challenge in elections. The automation of this option will enhance its continuation and hopefully maintain higher voter participation in future elections.”

Approval of this funding enables County Clerk Staley Ferry to formalize an agreement with BlueCrest, a global leader in enterprise print, mail, and customer communications, to purchase state-of-the-art equipment to automate her Vote By Mail program.

Formerly a division of Pitney Bowes’ Document Messaging Technologies, BlueCrest provides a comprehensive line of printers, inserters, and sorters for an integrated, secure, start-to-finish Vote By Mail program for processing both outbound and inbound ballots.

Equipment includes: the EvoluJet Ballot Printer which has the capacity to print up to 2,200 Vote By Mail Ballots per hour; the ReliaVote Mailstream Evolution Inserter, which can assemble for mailing up to 7,000 Vote

By Mail packets per hour; and the ReliaVote Vantage Sorter, which can sort up to 24,000 packets per hour for both presort mailing and ballot returns.

The BlueCrest suite of equipment will dramatically increase the speed and accuracy of assembling Vote By Mail packets and processing ballot returns while enabling Staley Ferry to save more than $234,000 per election on part-time workers and staff overtime alone. Streamlining the size of Vote By Mail packets and presorting them before mailing will save an estimated $183,000 in postage per election based on 125,000 ballots. Other savings of at least $100,000 per election are anticipated.

The $1.9 million approved by the Will County Board includes funding to renovate workspace in the Will County Office Building to serve as a Vote By Mail center as well as a five-year maintenance contract and related equipment and supplies.

The County Clerk noted that automating the Vote By Mail program will follow through on her commitment to modernize the County Clerk’s Office and guarantee secure and efficient elections.

With funding approved, the County Clerk expects to activate the BlueCrest system for the June 28 Primary Election.

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